It’s All or Nothing
INTRODUCTION: If you were going on vacation would you be satisfied with getting halfway there? If you left a job half finished do you think your boss would be satisfied? If you gave it 50% would you be considered a real team player? Going halfway, giving it 50% doesn’t fare well in any aspect of life, especially the Christian life. Yet we get the notion that half-hearted devotion is okay. We think Jesus should be satisfied with 50%. It’s too extreme to be sold-out for Jesus. It’s too radical to be completely loyal to Christ. When it comes to living for Jesus we shouldn’t be giving it anything less than our all.
1) It’s all or nothing.
• Matt 6:19-24. Jesus didn’t say, “store up some treasures on earth and some in heaven”. He said don’t store up on earth but do store up in heaven. It wasn’t a 50/50 deal. It’s a 0/100 deal. Not that it’s wrong to obtain worldly goods. God gives us material things to enjoy. But where is our heart? Our heart can’t be 50% geared toward self-gratification and 50% geared toward Christ-glorification. If we’re Christians but our eyes are fixated on worldly things instead of heavenly things then the light of Christ within us is shrouded in darkness. And how great is that darkness since we have the light of Christ in us yet we choose to pursue the lusts of the flesh? We cannot serve two masters. We can’t be 50% Christian and 50% worldly. It doesn’t work that way. We can’t say we love Jesus if we’re living to gratify self. We might think we’re totally devoted to Jesus but we need the light of Christ to highlight if we’re trying to live a double life. Have we compromised for the sake of self? We can’t be sold-out to Jesus if we sell out to the world.
• Rev. 3:14-16. We might think that half-hearted devotion is better than no devotion at all. Not so. Jesus would rather have us cold than lukewarm. If we’re cold we know we’re cold. If we’re hot we know we’re hot. If we’re lukewarm we think we’re hot when we’re not. Jesus doesn’t want us to be deceived. Plus, if we’re lukewarm we’re being a bad witness. If I’m cold I’m not claiming to be a Christian. I might not be living like a Christian but at least I’m not leading anyone astray by saying I am a Christian. But if I’m lukewarm I’m hurting the cause of Christ because I’m saying I’m a Christian but my lifestyle doesn’t reflect that. We can’t get away with straddling the fence. We can’t think that being lukewarm is good enough. Being lukewarm is distasteful to Jesus. If we don’t want to become spit on the ground then we need to realize that it’s all or nothing.
• Jeremiah 29:11-13. God has plans for us. He wants us to prosper; he wants to give us hope. But these plans will materialize, the prosperity will come, the hope will be real when we seek him with all our heart. Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind. If we invest half our heart we will not find God. If our hearts aren’t fully devoted we will not experience the magnitude of who God is and what he has for us. If we put restrictions on our devotion to God or if we have stipulations we are shortchanging God and more so ourselves. We can’t be like, “God, I’ll be devoted to you as long as you do A, B and C.” If our loyalty to God is contingent on him fulfilling our requirements then we are not a 100% follower of Christ. The plans God had for me (having a wonderful family, writing a book, becoming a minister, etc.) did not come to fruition until I put away what was standing in the way of me being sold-out for him.
2) Jesus offers us his all.
• John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Jesus desires to give us all there is. He has come that we may have the fullness of life. But when we are halfhearted, when we give it 50% we allow the devil to steal that fullness of life from us. We will not experience the fullness of life unless we are willing to give him the fullness of our life. Satan will try to convince us that the fullness of life is found in having the best of both worlds. Have your cake and eat it too, he says. But Satan is a liar. He wants to keep us from experiencing the full life. Through worldly pleasures Satan, like Miller beer, offers us the “high life”. But, if I realize that the best life is not found in giving half my heart to the world and half to the Lord but rather in giving 100% of my heart to Jesus then I can experience the full life. John 1:16, “From the fullness of his [Jesus’] grace we have all received one blessing after another.” The fullness of life is found only in Jesus Christ.
• Eph. 3:16-19. God doesn’t give us 50% of his love. He doesn’t give us 50% of his forgiveness. He doesn’t give us 50% of his power. So what constitutes us giving him 50% of our loyalty, our devotion, our heart, our service? I can’t be rooted and established firmly in love if I’m halfhearted. How will we know how wide, long, high and deep Jesus’ love for us is if we hold back? We won’t understand this full love that surpasses knowledge when we aren’t fully devoted to Jesus. I think sometimes we measure Christ’s devotion to us by the level of our devotion to him. If we are halfhearted toward Jesus then we assume he will be halfhearted toward us. But the reality is that Jesus’ level of love and devotion doesn’t change according to how we are toward him. Love didn’t get any bigger than when Jesus died on the cross for me. He didn’t wait until people were completely devoted to him before he was willing to go to the cross. He showed extreme 100% love for people who hated him. His love for me doesn’t grow when my love for him grows. But, I can grasp what Jesus’ wholehearted love looks like when I myself become wholehearted toward Jesus. Then I can be filled with the fullness of God. Colossians 2:10 says that we are given fullness in Christ. Jesus didn’t pay half of the penalty for our sin. He paid it all. He gave us his all. Why would we want to hold back when we’ve been given so much through Christ?
3) Are you ready to give it your all?
• Luke 14:25-33. In the first example we see where the person was at liberty to decide whether or not to build a tower. And the second was more of an urgent matter where a king was preparing to go to war with another king who was coming after him. One pastor said of the two different scenarios, “In the first it’s like Jesus is saying, ‘sit down and think about whether you can afford to follow me. And in the second one he’s saying, ‘think about whether you can afford not to follow me’. We need to count the cost of giving it our all. But we also need to count the cost of not giving it our all. Jesus doesn’t want us to rush into making a commitment to him but he also doesn’t want us to put it off because there might come a time when it’s too late and our procrastination leads to an eternity apart from him. But the question remains: are we aware of the 100% commitment Jesus is asking for? That’s the problem with easy beliefism where all you need to do is pray Jesus into your heart and you’re saved. It’s not just about having your sins forgiven and going to heaven. It’s about a radical, extreme, wholehearted 100% commitment. Are we willing to give up everything in order to follow Jesus? This doesn’t mean if we’re going to follow Jesus we first need to strip ourselves of everything else in our life. Jesus is making a radical statement to show us that we need to be willing to do whatever it takes to put him first. We need to be willing to make sacrifices and be willing to be made uncomfortable at times. Romans 8:17, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” All or nothing means we are in it not only for the blessings, but the hardships as well. If we are going to be sold-out followers of Jesus then we need to be willing to deal with persecutions and adversity along with receiving the blessings and benefits. Dietrich Bonhoffer-Cost of Discipleship.
• Sometimes we think we’re 100% devoted but if we were to examine our walk we might find where that’s not true. Are you holding onto a specific sin in your life? Are you someone who is holding back in your giving? “Well, you know, I’m doing well in most areas; isn’t that good enough?” Luke 18:18-23. This guy was living a good life. He had been keeping the commandments since he was a boy. Yet he lacked one thing, Jesus said. And that one thing was holding him back. Jesus asked the rich young ruler to sell all he had and give to the poor and then come follow him. That was extreme. But what Jesus was doing was asking him to get rid of what was keeping him from having all or nothing devotion. All it takes is one stronghold to keep us from not being sold out for Jesus. Maybe you have friendships with people who subtly or not so subtly try to pull you away from Jesus. You may have material possessions that steal time away from doing what God wants you to do. Jesus might say to us here today, ‘if your possessions are what is keeping you from being fully devoted to me get rid of them. If your relationships are keeping you from being fully devoted to me get rid of them.’ Jesus wants all-or-nothing followers. He wants wholehearted commitments. Kevin Williams wrote in his sermon “All or Nothing At All”, ‘the time has come to stop shortchanging God. There are no part time positions in the body of Christ. You can’t be a part-time worshipper of a full-time God.’
CONCLUSION: We sing that God is our ‘All in All’ but are we going all out for him? We want all that Jesus has to offer but yet we are reluctant to offer him all of us. We want all the benefits but are unwilling to fulfill all the responsibilities. What is keeping you from being an all-or-nothing Christian? What is holding you back from being sold-out for Jesus? Let’s make a commitment to become sold-out, 100%, wholehearted Christians.
